Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

Excellent post. Says a lot about the crap newspapers are still publishing (barely).

 

I completely agree. I hate it but you’ve got it right. I get Amazon Prime for $13.99 a month. Worth every cent. It’s all I need for TV right now. Just bought a one-year online subscription to Washington Post - for $29.

 

I got a $60-per-year subscription to WaPo about six months ago, and it's definitely worth it. I think the normal price is $150 for the year and that's a big bite at once, but still worth it.

Every paper in these parts except for a handful is owned by Gannett, and I worked at a few of them. Wouldn't spend a dime and I hate saying that because friends work there.

 

Netflix provides a bang for the buck; newspapers not so muc

Amen brother. I am one of the few who still says if we had stayed the course and put out a great great print product like the 10 page daily sections during the week and 18 page sports sections on weekends in the 90s that newspapers would have survived. You put out the crap of today and charge what we charge, sorry. It all started when publishers were sold a bill of goods called the free internet.

 

Ask Pete Spina about the demand for increased sports coverage via print in the 1990s. The demand did not exist.

 

That’s not what they were sold. They were sold a bill of goods called “exclusive content deals with AOL or Compuserve, which will provide an online revenue stream.” They were told that the full Internet would never work for the typical user because home access speeds would never increase to the point that full Internet access would be tenable.

The newspaper consultant who told me that at an SPJ meeting was last seen via LinkedIn working as a bowling alley attendant.

 

Threw his industry into the gutter, now fetching balls from there.

 

We could do a whole thread on how much money newspaper publishers set on fire by giving it to consultants (instead of, oh, investing in employees. Or at least equipment).

My favorite example from the 2000s was when our company hired a consulting firm, which emailed anonymous surveys to everyone in the building to examine the "culture" of the place. So we all filled them out honestly.

When the results were revealed, they showed our company culture was dominated by two themes: "what did we do last year" and "C.Y.A." Then our publisher got pissed off about the results and never implemented any of the consultant's suggested changes.

A good use of $10,000 (or whatever was paid).

 

Independent publishers just loved handing money to consultants. Then the big companies bought up all the papers and no way they were going to spend that kind of money on something like that. Second generation publishers were not the smartest people, dishing money to know-nothing consultants instead of paying their own employees well.

 

The best are the design consultants. One of the Bost0n suburban papers rebranded, say, 20 years ago. New name. New design. Expanded circulation area. In fairness the design could've used a refresh. After spending whatever stupid amount of money, they got a couple hundred new subscribers. At least they won a few NEPA awards that year.

 

Mario Garcia has stolen more money from the newspaper industry than any vulture capitalist.

 

You must be thinking of a different Pete (Price).